We can manage our thinking process: we can accept the positive thoughts from the world and we can support our own positive thinking on life – people, tasks, experiences. Humans alone can have this conscious attitude, to choose what to think of and how – positively or negatively. In the exercise we perform thinking by staying in one place while the arms make very slow movements; next, the attitude to life is like attitude to its symbol, water on Earth, and we make a scooping gesture; last, the effort to sustain good thoughts is performed with a movement to support something. Some examples:

for life: I have a positive mental attitude;

for people: I think of the good in them;

for my tasks: I think that I can cope with them;

for difficult circumstances: I think that everything will turn to good.

“This exercise begins with the slow movement of the arms from the right to the left and then back to the right. Then, while walking forwards, scooping motions are made with the hands, followed by the arms pushing outwards as if supporting something. This movement connects us with the world of thought and we enter it. Through this movement, a rhythm is brought to our organism that comes from the sentient world, the world of just and noble thought. The first part of the exercise, with the slow movement of the arms from the right to the left and back again, is the receiving of that which is sent from the world of thought. The second part is the imparting of that which we receive into our lives and activities. [Beinsa Douno, Paneurhythmy, p.79]

QUESTIONS

1.Text: How many times do the words “think” and “thoughts” repeat? Write your own “sacred thought” about life. Finish up the sentence “Life is…”.

2.Drawing: Draw an illustration to the exercise. Considering Roden’s stature The Thinker, make your own project for the thinking person statue.

3.Questions: How can you control a negative thought? Do thoughts influence our feelings and why?

4.Experience: Tell us of situation and experiences when you have managed to think positively irrespective of the circumstances. What is the feeling?

5.Imagination: Imagine, while you play the exercise: 1. that your arms are like two antennas that catch all good thoughts from the environment. 2. that your hands scoop water from the “sea of life”. 3. that you support a wall (your thoughts) stay upright.

6.Affirmation: Write your own positive affirmation for thinking. For example: I can think well. I have positive mental attitude.

7.Quotes: I think, therefore I am (René Descartes). What we think, we become (Buddha). The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory (Paul Fix). Find your own favourite quite on Think.